David James's Blog (10)

It is not much, but I am proud to announce the birth of my very first podcast. Check it out at my blog.

I recently posted my response to Warlick's steps to 21st century literacy. I have completed one of the steps on my to do list. I have created a wiki for my network of teachers to share ideas, links, etc. The hard part is getting my intended audience to buy into it since we meet face to face on a regular basis. Anyway, it is a step closer to literacy. I have a lot to add to it, but it is a… Continue

I posted this to my blog. Not very often do I have such a thought producing moment, but this was one of those. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Today was a fantastic day. Ten teachers from one of our campuses came to visit with me about inclusion. While the talk of inclusion gets my juices flowing, we crossed over into the discussion of using iPods in the classroom. They had millions of questions and were certainly interested in using those little devices in their classrooms. Of course they want someone to come and teach them how to do it, and naturally I volunteered.

After that conversation, my principal stopped me in the…

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Fifteen high school students have already registered for the Wiki Mentoring Project. There was little enthusiasm to the project, but I assume they will become more interested as they get more involved with the project.

I was surprised at the number of students who have never heard of a wiki or RSS. I think this will be a bit of a learning experience for them as they learn some 2.0 tools.

Tomorrow I will bring in the high school students into the Wiki Mentoring Project. The sophomore English teachers are very excited to bring this project into their classrooms, because they see the benefits of students helping students with their writing skills. Last year was a huge success. I hope to be able to build something that lasts throughout the year and not just for a six weeks project.



Who knows? Maybe I can bring along some students from other areas of the world. Teaching… Continue

There is a battle in the tech world and the battle lines are clearly drawn. The two side at war are Safari users and right-clickers. That's right. Windows vs. Mac happens every day and my school district is no different. We are strictly a no Mac district. However, the battle is about to get interesting.

Today, my administrators gave me the green light to get a quote for two Macbooks. It is just two right now, but I bet we will see more in the next budget. I hope so anyway.

In…

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Last year, I put together a little project that I called the Wiki Mentoring Project. In a nutshell, middle school students wrote a story on their wikis and high school students offered feedback and critiques. All of it was done online. All who were involved loved it.

Today, I started putting the pieces together to relaunch the project with a larger group of students. The project itself will not launch for another week or two, but I will…

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Here it is January and I have hardly done anything that I have learned this school year. The fire went out or I lost touch with what is possible. I need to start using a network that already exists. Classroom 2.0 is filled with teacher that I need to learn from. Everything that I am looking for is right under my nose if I will just use it. I just wish that Ning was not blocked on my campus. I guess I will make lemonade out that lemon later on.

Living in a small town certainly has its advantages. But one of the disadvantages of this small town is that it is still in the 20th century. Our garden walls are so high, nothing can get in. (Can anyone help me remember where the garden wall illustration came from?) Ning came across my readings while at home, and I would love for it to become a part of my professional development during school hours. But I teach in the 20th century.